Dany won't be in tWoW?

[VersusAllOdds]

If only we could be so lucky

If only... This silly girl is (apart from Tyrion) my greatest disappointment in the books.

On topic: as far as I know, Martin said there would be a Mereen battle in the following book, and I cannot imagine it without our Harry Potter girl.

[The Lordly Oak]

On topic: as far as I know, Martin said there would be a Mereen battle in the following book, and I cannot imagine it without our Harry Potter girl.

Given the sample chapters that Martin's posted or read, I think it's entirely possible that Daenerys is absent from the entire battle. At the end of A Dance With Dragons, she's with a dragon she doesn't know how to control, surrounded by a Dothraki khalisar and Meereen is on the brink of war. From the sample chapters, we know the battle starts without her. I think it probably ends without her as she settles some old scores in the Dothraki Sea.

[ColdDrake]

Yea I don't see Dany being present for the battle itself. GRRM said he was writing about the Dothraki at one point so it might be a little while before she gets back to Mereen

[The Holy Goat]

The Battle of Meeren will probably be seen only from Barristan, Victarion and Tyrions viewpoints. Daenerys will probably take control of Khal Jhaqo's Khalasar or something, arriving in Meeren after the battle. Or perhaps she will go directly to the Free Cities, leaving Tyrion Lannister to take control of the forces at Meeren... unlikely, but I like it!

[Matty-El]

I might be alone in this but its my hope that Dany decides to forget about Westeros altogether and only goes there when called for help. She is in the middle of forging her own seven, eight or nine Kingdoms in Essos. Her desire to cut and run (eventually to Westeros) would undo over time all her work on the slave trade imo. Her real motivation is revenge and its hard to begrudge her that but an eye for an eye says a lot. This way we could all get the ending we want with Dany in Westeros and it wouldn't be to cause pain to an already bleeding continent by mostly dead people almost 20 years ago. Plus she could fly there with a token force of her fastest leaving most of her army to hold the work she's done while bringing even one dragon would be a game changer for them. Crackpotish?

[jlk7e]

I'm not sure I follow your reasoning. Volantis is currently her enemy. If you meant the slaves rising for her, I can't see how that would bring her into conflict with Braavos or the FM. A return to aggression by Volantis is going to scare the hell out of the Free Ciies nearest them, and Braavos has supported them in resisting Volantis in the past. Volantis wants to be the new Valarian empire, while the Braavosi and the FM were the ones who escaped from the original empire's grasp.

The Braavosi certainly hate slavery, but they also hate dragons, so a Dany vs. Volantis match-up is one they're bound to be deeply ambivalent about.

[*expletivedeleted*]

The Braavosi certainly hate slavery, but they also hate dragons, so a Dany vs. Volantis match-up is one they're bound to be deeply ambivalent about.

I personally feel that the Braavosi hate slavery far more then they hate dragons, when push comes to shove.

[Arya_Ghostface]

I don't see Dany going to Asshai, I have always interpreted the shadow as being an emotional state. A depression, a fear, a point where she thinks she has hit rock bottom. If it is an actual location that she visits however, I find the ruins of Valyria a far more likely candidate, not least because it would serve Martin well from a plot progression point of view. He has said we will learn more about the Doom, and who is better to learn about it than Dany herself visiting there? Physically she is the only one who can do it, as she has Drogon so she can fly above the toxic fumes, and she is a Targaryen, meaning she is immune to fire and disease. If anyone visits Valyria at all, that's Dany.

And yes in order for Dany's plot to be resolved in two books, we need Dany POV chapters in both.

[Black Crow]

Agreed, I can quite easily foresee Danaerys not making it to Westeros in Winds of Winter, but would be very surprised indeed if we don't meet her at all. I think there is a straightforward reason for this extended interlude out east and that is that its what Dany is really about. GRRM has said we won't see Asshai, but Valyria is a different matter entirely. Quaithe said that to go forward she must go back, and Valyria is going back to where the Targaryens came from.

In short this the Song of Ice and Fire and while Jon must deal with the Ice and go to the Land of Always Winter, so Dany must go to Valyria to deal with the Fire.

[Team_Rob]

TWOW is gonna be too big a book for GRRM to leave Daenerys out of. He's learned from AFFC.

[joluoto]

Dany will be in Winds. Going beneath the Shadow doesn't have to mean Asshai.

[The Real Summer Islander]

Originally there was supposed to be a five year gap between the VERY end of ASoS and AFfC for characters to grow(Samwell to train to be a maestor, Arya as an assassin, Sansa as LF's pupil, Bran as a greenseer, Jon Snow as Lord Commander, etc.) and I think GRRM said he was originally planning that the battle of Meereen WOULD have happened in that time and Dany would've been forced to flee to Asshai where she'd be at the start of AFfC.

But then he was so reliant on flashbacks and whatnot, that he got fed up and scraped the idea and i'm pretty sure NOW the whole "going to Asshai" thing was scraped all together.

Pretty sure Dany passing underneath the giant shadow of Drogon at the end of her last chapter in ADwD is supposed to be the substitute to fill in the prophecy. In hindsight, the "shadow" in that prophecy now works as a redherring since everyone thinks it means Asshai.

This.. sometimes plans can change when one book(feast) comes out like 10 years after acok.

[C0bR]

I would throw a party.

[Ghost's Shadow]

I was going to say "Don't get my hopes up." but that's not really nice. She will be, of course, and she'd better be on the move. :)

[conjo]

Quaithe tells Dany she must "pass beneath the shadow" which most of us take as Asshai.

To go North, you must journey South

To reach the West, you must go East

To go forward you must go back

and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow

Maybe heading North-East would help Dany to reach Dorne; thereby gaining supporters that would help her reclaim the Iron Throne.

Maybe "going forward" and "pass beneath the shadow" will essentially mean the same thing.. that Dany needs to revisit her past. She may need to travel to Vaes Dothrak and unite all Khalasars under her name. If this were true then it would also fulfill another prophecy centred around Dany, in that she is the "Stallion who shall mounts the World".

Leaving Dany out of TWOW wouldn't be a wise move, considering she has a lot to do in order to begin moving towards Westeros. If she were absent, if she ventured towards Asshai off-page that would be more trouble for GRRM because the next question would be "why couldn't we read about that?"

Another theory may be that the shadow she passes under are the White Walkers if she were to arrive in Westeros in winter. If Quaithe's prophecy is leading Dany towards the Iron Throne, then Dany eliminating the White Walker threat is a sure-fire way of getting her the throne (if there is one, by the end).

Multiple times, throughout the narrative; it is stated that Dany shouldn't trust Quaithe regardless of whether or not her other prophecies have proved true. If GRRM says we're not going to Asshai then, we have to assume this Shadow is her past, the army of White Walkers or something else entirely.

[TheDarkOne]

If Danny isn't in TWoW, it could be the greatest book ever wrote.

[Tini]

If Danny isn't in TWoW, it could be the greatest book ever wrote.

Dany wasn't in AFFC, yet many people hated it anyway.

[SerWaymarRoyce]

Why all the dany hate? maybe I read the title wrong but I'm pretty sure in the song of ice and fire that she has to be the fire...so you love a series of books but despise one of the central characters to the overall plot, I just don't get it?

Don't get me wrong, I have a love hate relationship with the majority of charcters but dany is just not one to hate

[Whitering]

Well, everyone with lots of posts loves or hates one of several characters.

When did GRRM say we wouldn't see Asshai, it was a long time ago right? Has he reaffirmed that fact?

[TheTowerOfJoy]

When they killed Mago in the first season on the HBO series, GRRM said he appears again in the books. Since he is Khal Jhaqo's bloodrider and Dany has now encountered Jhaqo's khal, I believe their arc will be dealt with in TWoW.

Yeah, I think Dany will hop on Drogon, and have him torch Jhaqo, and claim leadership over what she felt was her khalasar that he stole from her, and then lead them back to Mereen and arrive as the battle is raging.